Okay, I'm having trouble understanding the complaint. From the article:

That spending, though, allowed the city to host an event that drew
more than 700,000 people to the waterfront over roughly three months of
sailing
and generated at least $364 million in total economic impact,
draft
figures from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute reveal. That figure rises
to more than $550 million if the long-planned construction of
a new
cruise ship terminal, which the regatta served as a catalyst to finally get
built, is factored in.

If San Francisco can't recoup that $5.5 million from the $364 million in
commerce that the event churned up I think SF has a problem with its tax
structure.